"Penultimate" is a 25-cent word that means "next to last." So while I hope you come up with a fantastic pistol, I -really- hope it is not the next to last S&W pistol ever.

My easy pick is my 845, but I don't think that's fair because the 845 is very rare and basically hand-built. And that would make me want to defer to my Model 52-2, but that one is pretty much the SAME way. Both of these pistols are, well, ridiculous.

In the spirit of the thread, I'll take a production S&W pistol as my favorite -- it certainly was before I got those two above.

My S&W 745 fits that bill. It's a later model, non-IPSC Anniv pistol, shipped with a fixed rear sight that a previous owner swapped out for an adjustable. It runs flawlessly, it's extremely good lookin' and it's all grins on a range day.